Contrary cat costs owner

March 15, 2012

“But the cat was cool, and he never said a mumblin’ word.” Country singer Hoyt Axton, “Della and the Dealer.”

A stubborn feline cost a Colorado man a novel citation Wednesday after his cat, Stella, refused to keep up with her jogging owner. He leashed her to a rock and continued his run, only to return to the waiting arms of the Lafayette law.

A passerby called police, and they collared Seth Franco, 19, when he returned a few minutes later to retrieve the animal. Officers said the cat was under siege from birds when they arrived. Franco was cited for “domestic animal cruel treatment,” a municipal offense, because, as one officer said, “Our ordinance prohibits that kind of tethering.”

The cat was uninjured and released to its owner — after he signed the citation.

The guy made a mistake, one that seems pretty innocent to me. I don’t see how publicly calling him an “idiot” and trying to rally animosity toward him helps matters.

When you publicly call him out as an “idiot”, especially without even knowing all the details about the situation, it says a lot more about you than it does him.

You are certainly not alone in demonstrating this kind of “kick-him-when-he’s-down, I’m-so-superior-to-him” behavior.

The point is that we really don’t make our world any better, and likely make it worse, by being so eager to pile on useless insults on people who are already being punished. Why make matters worse; why add such coarseness and hostility to our community forum? What good does it do?

Why don’t they cite the birds for being menacing animals? I guess since it was probably in a public area they have to cite the city manager or the city council as property owners/managers. He should sue the city on the grounds that his cat is traumatized and is suffering from anxiety attacks. The cat is no longer aloof and independent but is needy and clingy.

I understand exactly where shelworth is coming from and he/she is right to be angry. Dogs get out all the time and the cat was defenseless tied to that tree on a sidewalk. Granted, the cat apparently walks on a leash and decided it wanted to hang back in the middle of the exercise. I had a cat years back that also walked on a leash and there was more than one occasion when he decided that he didn’t want to walk anymore after we were half way to our destination (cats are argumentative by nature). I never tied him to anything while determining to complete my task alone, I picked him up and carried him home.

Thinking of the cat being left in such a helpless position makes me angry too, some people shouldn’t have pets if they are going to come up with such lame brained ideas.

HUH? Are they saying that he tied the cat up near a tree with a birds nest in it and the birds started attacking the cat so he was guilty of animal cruelty? I’ve seen birds attack cats when there are fledglings around and my cat ran away complaining about it, it was hysterical to watch but then, he wasn’t tied up and was able to run away and tell me all about how shocked he was that the birds would have such nerve!!

Personally, I would never tie my pet up in a public area where anyone could come along and steal them and possibly even intentionally harm them, I think of my pets like I think of a family member. I have seen people walk their pets and then tie them outside a market while they run in to do some quick shopping, like to grab a bottle of water or something fast, I don’t see any problem with that if they’re able to keep an eye out on them.

I’m with you on this one, Cindy. I would have picked up the cat and turned around for home. My cat wouldn’t stand to take a jog with me anyway. He barely has time for anything but eating, napping, and taking issue with a gopher or two. I don’t leave my pets alone in my car, let alone tethered to something. I also consider my pets to be like my family members, even my hens!

You’re going to have a good laugh at this but I have never been able to eat my hens eggs. Oh I eat eggs, just not my own hens eggs. I know its ridiculous but, like you, I think of them as pets and just can’t eat their “would be” babies ! So I give the eggs to other people to eat ;) Either that or I let them sit on the eggs and hatch them. Last time I did that, it cost me a couple of hundred $$ because 3 of the chicks had splayed legs and I took them to a specialist in Moral Bay who made braces for them.